Futures tracking the prices US manufacturers pay for aluminum and steel surged after President Donald Trump said he will double tariffs on the metals this week.
Contracts linked to the all-in price of aluminum delivered to the US Midwest jumped 54% to the highest since at least 2013 on the Comex exchange in New York on Monday — offering an early glimpse of the much higher costs for American factories, with import levies set to rise to 50% from Wednesday.
Aluminum used in everything from beer cans to engine blocks and window frames was priced at a premium of 58 cents a pound, or about $1,280 a ton, in the Midwest over benchmark London contracts. That suggests US buyers could end up paying about 50% more than international competitors to get hold of the metal.
Trump hopes the increased levies will protect margins for domestic mills and spur investment in new production capacity, and shares of US steel and aluminum makers surged in after-hours trading after Trump announced the increase on Friday. But construction companies have warned that levies on steel and aluminum — which Trump had already raised from 10% to 25% — will increase the cost of critical building materials.
Comex steel futures were up more than 8% in early trading on Monday — and while both contracts are relatively illiquid — the moves indicate that the commercial burden of the tariffs will weigh most heavily on the US aluminum market. More than 80% of the aluminum used in the US is supplied via imports, while less than 20% of the country’s steel is sourced from overseas, according to Morgan Stanley.
“We expect prices to rise — the US does not have enough domestic capacity of either,” analysts at Citigroup Inc. said in an emailed note. For aluminum in particular, the tariffs have “mostly just functioned as a tax on consumers thus far.”
Benchmark aluminum contracts on the London Metal Exchange traded 0.4% higher at $2,454 a ton as of 1:35 p.m. local time.
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